When I first started watching Doctor Who, and through most of the first two seasons, I was not a fan of Rose Tyler. I thought that she was too young to be traveling to the doctor. To me, she also seemed very juvenile and I thought that she was not mature enough to travel with the doctor. It seemed like she was travelling with the Doctor just to have something to do.
It was not until her final episode, Doomsday, that I realized how much I liked her and would miss her in future episodes. I realized that some of my initial thoughts of her were incorrect. While Rose is pretty young to do the travelling that she does, she acts her age; so my original thought of her as juvenile may be a little harsh. She is having fun and making the most of her experiences, which should not be called juvenile. Rose’s original motive to travel may have been to have something to do, but we can see her change throughout her travels. She seems to become more mature, wiser, and care about the same things as the Doctor. Rose learns from the Doctor and really shows her growth as the episodes progress.
In Doomsday I really appreciated the bond that Rose and the Doctor had. They respected each other immensely, which is something I never noticed until she was gone. Rose was willing to give up her entire life, family, and friends in order to keep her new life with the Doctor. Not many people her age would be willing to do that. She has found where she belongs and is willing to die in order to stay with him. After she gets taken to the alternate universe, she says “Take me back!” which, to me, shows that she would have rather died helping the Doctor than to have to go on living without him.
I also respect that their relationship was purely friendship. Rose never expected more from the Doctor than for him to respect her, travel with her, and be her friend. However, with the new companion, Martha, this is very different. She expects the Doctor to like her more than a friend and gets upset with him for taking her to the same place he took Rose. This made me extremely upset because the Doctor was still grieving over his loss of his best friend.
When I think of Doomsday, instead of thinking about the Battle of Canary Wharf, I think about the intensity we see in Rose and the Doctor’s relationship. This episode finally made me see how great of a companion Rose was and I will always miss her.
Diversity and the Doctor 
Personally, I never liked Rose, but I do appreciate your change of mind and the reasoning behind it. While Rose did seem to progressively mature throughout her time in the series with the two doctors, I still appreciate Martha’s immediate intelligence. I’m curious as to what you think Rose provided for the Doctor vs. what Martha provides in terms of knowledge, friendship, overall assistance, etc.
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I have always been a big fan of Rose from the very beginning. I loved her personality around the Doctor and her dedication to always support him and his tasks. However, after reading your point of view on her, I do completely see how she seems very immature not completely knowledgeable with the Doctor. I think I like Rose for the fact I thought that she provided more of a love relationship with him rather than a companion. Your perspective puts a new light in my mind on how I view Rose when I think of her as the Doctor’s companion.
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Rose is my favorite companion. It was hard for me to see her leaving the show. I was so happy to see here again later on in the episode “Turn Left”. At the moment, I wished that she could come back. I know that the other companions are good as well, but they say that first one is hard to forget.
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